How does Things Fall Apart resolve?

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Aparthas a tragic resolution to close out the novel. Indeed, the novel ends with Okonkwo taking his own life, and his body must be removed by the District Commissioner. Okonkwo is unable to adjust to Umuofia after it has been altered by the pervasive colonial influence of white settlers. His inflexible will does not allow him to adjust to the changes of his home, so he chooses to hang himself....

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has a tragic resolution to close out the novel. Indeed, the novel ends with Okonkwo taking his own life, and his body must be removed by the District Commissioner. Okonkwo is unable to adjust to Umuofia after it has been altered by the pervasive colonial influence of white settlers. His inflexible will does not allow him to adjust to the changes of his home, so he chooses to hang himself. Obierika laments the loss of his best friend and blames the District Commissioner and men like him:

“That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself; and now he will be buried like a dog” (208).

Interestingly, Achebe resolves the novel by having the free indirect discourse focus on the District Commissioner’s perspective:

“As he walked back to the court he thought about that book. Every day brought him some new material. The story of this man who had killed a messenger and hanged himself would make interesting reading. One could almost write a whole chapter on him. Perhaps not a whole chapter but a reasonable paragraph at any rate” (208-9).

This achieves two different effects. First, it shows how the area has officially been changed through Western influence. Next, and most importantly, it shows how the Western narrative often takes precedent in the world as a whole. Oknokwo’s epic, tragic story will be a mere footnote in a Western representative’s narrative. Okonkwo and his clan are marginalized by Eurocentric forces.

What are the different ways that a writer can end a story?

There are many common ways that an author can end a story. If you consider a traditional plot diagram (also known as the plot pyramid or Freytag's pyramid) which consists of the five main parts including Exposition (or background), Rising Action, Climax, Denouement (or falling action), and Resolution, a book or story which follows this traditional pattern might end with a resolution. In that case, the main climax, situation, problem, or plot line ends firmly...

There are many common ways that an author can end a story. If you consider a traditional plot diagram (also known as the plot pyramid or Freytag's pyramid) which consists of the five main parts including Exposition (or background), Rising Action, Climax, Denouement (or falling action), and Resolution, a book or story which follows this traditional pattern might end with a resolution. In that case, the main climax, situation, problem, or plot line ends firmly and can go no further. A resolution like this could be in the form of a happy ending or a sad ending for the main characters.

Take for instance the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which has several subplots. Tom Robinson's subplot ends when he is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. Tom cannot appeal his guilty verdict, and his trial will not go on since he has died. His plot line has ended (though not in a happy way). Contrast that ending with the ultimate ending of the book when Scout and Jem are rescued by Boo Radley. They get to meet Boo, who they've been fascinated with for a long time, their enemy (Bob Ewell) is killed and can no longer cause them harm, and the book ends with all the characters safe and at home where no more harm can come to them. In this case, all conflicts have resolved in the form of a happy ending.

Sometimes, though, authors deliberately don't give their readers a resolution. When a story ends without resolving some of its main conflicts and questions (thus leaving the reader "hanging"), it's called a cliffhanger. Have you ever had an episode of your favorite TV show leave you wondering what will happen next or a movie end with a big question that will likely be answered in the sequel? These are examples of cliffhangers, which also occur in novels.

Usually when an author ends with a cliffhanger, they are setting the reader up for the sequel (as in the case of Catching Fire in the Hunger Games trilogy), but sometimes authors leave the ending open-ended so that readers can decide, debate, and speculate on what might have happened after the last page.

To recap, two techniques authors can use to end their stories are resolutions (which can be either happy or sad) or cliffhangers.

Why did the Igbo consult oracles? Are they unique in this regard?

In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo people are deeply religious and follow their customs and traditions very strictly. One of these religious customs is to consult Oracles when any major decision needs to be made by the tribe. They use different Oracles for different matters, and they believe that the Oracles act as a kind of liaison between them and their gods. One example of this is when they have to make a decision...

In Things Fall Apart, the Igbo people are deeply religious and follow their customs and traditions very strictly. One of these religious customs is to consult Oracles when any major decision needs to be made by the tribe. They use different Oracles for different matters, and they believe that the Oracles act as a kind of liaison between them and their gods. One example of this is when they have to make a decision about whether to go to war with a neighboring tribe. Achebe writes that the people of Umuofia (the village in which the characters in the novel live) “never went to war unless its case was clear and just and was accepted as such by its Oracle--the Oracle of the Hills and Caves.” It is not enough for the people themselves to determine whether a war is justified; they have to make sure it is approved by the Oracle, or they could risk some kind of punishment.

Whether they are unique in their use of Oracles is a matter of interpretation, but many would say that they are not unique. While it is true that this is part of what causes the Igbo people to clash so greatly with the Christians who arrive and try to convert the Igbo, it is also not very different in theory from what many other religions do. It is not uncommon for certain religions, even today, to use some sort of mediator to act as a messenger between the people and a God or gods. In fact, the use of Oracles goes back even to ancient Greece and can be seen represented in plays like Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, where men would go and seek out Oracles to find out their fate and determine how to act from there.

When all men go to the town and Lennie goes to visit his puppy, who does he visit in Of Mice and Men?

Lennie talks to Crooks while the men are in town.

George and the other men go into town to spend their paychecks, and Lennie stays behind.  He goes into the barn to visit the puppies.  There he finds Crooks, the black stable hand.

Lennie flapped his big hands helplessly. "Ever'body went into town," he said. "Slim an' George an' ever'body. George says I gotta stay here an' not get in no trouble. I seen your...

Lennie talks to Crooks while the men are in town.

George and the other men go into town to spend their paychecks, and Lennie stays behind.  He goes into the barn to visit the puppies.  There he finds Crooks, the black stable hand.

Lennie flapped his big hands helplessly. "Ever'body went into town," he said. "Slim an' George an' ever'body. George says I gotta stay here an' not get in no trouble. I seen your light." (Ch. 4)

Crooks is used to being alone.  Most of the ranch hands do not fraternize with him, because he is black.  This is why he lives alone in the tack room instead of in the bunk house with the other men.  Crooks is also something of a permanent resident at the ranch, where the other men are migrants and go from ranch to ranch following work.

Crooks tells Lennie he isn’t wanted.  He tells Lennie that he does not belong in the barn since he is not a skinner.  Lennie tells him he is there to see the puppy.  Soon, it is clear to Crooks that Lennie is not like the others.

Crooks scowled, but Lennie's disarming smile defeated him. "Come on in and set a while," Crooks said. "'Long as you won't get out and leave me alone, you might as well set down." His tone was a little more friendly. "All the boys gone into town, huh?" (Ch. 4)

Crooks and Lennie are both outcasts and they are lonely.  Lennie seeks comfort and companionship with the puppies, and Crooks finds it in Lennie.  He is able to let his guard down because Lennie sees him as a person and not a black man.

Unfortunately, Lennie soon kills the puppy and then accidentally kills Curley’s wife, so it is not a long friendship.  Lennie is childlike, does not know his strength, and seems unable to control himself. 

What was the level of language of the narrator, in the story "The Lesson?"

The level of language used by the narrator in Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson” is hard to quantify but appears to be that of an under-educated upper elementary or middle school student. She uses the language that is acceptable in her neighborhood, which lacks proper grammar, pronunciation, and diction. Although she attends school, her language is reflective of what is used in her home life. It is cluttered with profanities, slang, and colloquialisms...

The level of language used by the narrator in Toni Cade Bambara’s short story “The Lesson” is hard to quantify but appears to be that of an under-educated upper elementary or middle school student. She uses the language that is acceptable in her neighborhood, which lacks proper grammar, pronunciation, and diction. Although she attends school, her language is reflective of what is used in her home life. It is cluttered with profanities, slang, and colloquialisms that she would hear used by the adults in her life. At times she uses double negatives and does not complete the endings on words. Therefore, instead of placing a level on the language it more important to understand why the author has the narrator use this language.

So this one day Miss Moore rounds us all up at the mailbox and it's puredee hot and she's knockin herself out about arithmetic. And school suppose to let up in summer I heard, but she don't never let up.

The story is written in 1972 when education and literacy for young African American students was lacking. The character Miss Moore, exceeds expectations by attaining a college education, and she attempts to address the issue of under-education by exposing the narrator and her friends to a side of life they rarely experience. She guides them on a trip to downtown Manhattan where they experience “sticker shock” in the famous toy store F.A.O. Schwartz. She takes it upon herself to let the students, including the narrator, discover that there is another “world” just outside of theirs in which education matters.

How do you compare a DNA molecule to a zipper?

DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid molecule is a double stranded molecule, that is, there are two legs or chains of this molecule. The strands are complementary to each other and are connected together by interlinking. The interlinking is provided by base pairing (adenosine (A) with thymine (T) and cytosine (C) with guanine (G)). The two sides have to fit well with each other (through base pairing) for the molecule to work.

Similarly, the zipper (on our...

DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid molecule is a double stranded molecule, that is, there are two legs or chains of this molecule. The strands are complementary to each other and are connected together by interlinking. The interlinking is provided by base pairing (adenosine (A) with thymine (T) and cytosine (C) with guanine (G)). The two sides have to fit well with each other (through base pairing) for the molecule to work.

Similarly, the zipper (on our bags, trousers, clothing, sleeping bags, etc.) has two strands or two legs. These two strands are complementary to each other and are interlinked to close the zip. The 'teeth' on one side of the zipper fits well into the open space between tooth on the other side of the zipper. The zipper is closed by moving the slider. The zipper's utility is because we can close it.

Hence DNA and zipper are similar to each other in a number of ways.

hope this helps. 

Show the Sturgis Rule Calculation and then fill in the chart for the Cell Boundaries N = 100 High Value = 111,200 Low Value = 74,800 (no values...

Sturges' rule is a way of calculating the number of bins (e.g. categories or classes) of a set of data. It is assumed that the data come from a normally distributed population.

Sturges' rule states that the number of bins should be the ceiling function of (1+log(2)n) (log base 2 of n, where the ceiling function returns the next higher integer.)

Here we have 1+log(2)100 is approximately 1+6.64385619=7.64385619 so the number of bins should be...

Sturges' rule is a way of calculating the number of bins (e.g. categories or classes) of a set of data. It is assumed that the data come from a normally distributed population.

Sturges' rule states that the number of bins should be the ceiling function of (1+log(2)n) (log base 2 of n, where the ceiling function returns the next higher integer.)

Here we have 1+log(2)100 is approximately 1+6.64385619=7.64385619 so the number of bins should be 8.

We can find the class width by (111200-74800)/8=4550, so we use 4551 as the class width. 

74799.5 - 79350.5
79350.5 - 83901.5
83901.5 - 88452.5
88452.5 - 93003.5
93003.5 - 97554.5
97554.5 - 102105.5
102105.5 - 106656.5
106656.5 - 111207.5

**If the data is in hundreds, the boundaries would be in 50's **